Can I finally switch from macbook air to surface pro 4?

[smanmit2]

Primary use: Excel, powerpoint, outlook, programming, and browsing.
Situation: Have been using macbook air - love it but few applications are not supported so decided to switch to windows. Bought surface pro 4 on release - was highly disappointed with battery life - never got more than 4 hours after all the settings suggested on forum. See my post - surface pro 4 terrible battery life do you agree?. I returned it and back to air.

Question: Considering all the recent updates - is surface pro 4 finally bug free and has 7 hours of battery life (considering my use)? In macbook air, I typically get 10 hours of battery life. Would appreciate if you can help with following:

1. Buy SP4 as now it is fully baked and has at least 6 hours of battery life
2. Hold on purchasing SP4
3. Install windows 10 on macbook air

Would appreciate if you can help and share your experience and suggestions.

 

[Great Bear]

The Surface's battery is definitely much better than it was when the tablet was. I used to lose about fifty percent of the battery when the tablet wasn't plugged in at night; now I lose one or two percent at the most. I haven't yet experienced a time when my Surface ran all the way down to the end of its battery, but when I was using the tablet heavily with the maximum brightness setting, it lost about thirty percent in the two to three hours that it was turned on.

Still, if your MacBook Air still works well, then I would recommend simply installing Windows 10 on there. I've never done it myself, but I haven't heard any stories of the MacBook becoming unusable after changing its operating system. It's also removable, which means that you could revert back to Mac OS if you have any problems.

Still, if you want a touchscreen, or think that you might use a tablet, then the Surface is probable a better option. You might also like to have two computers available, which would again mean getting the Surface. Personally, I'm very happy with my Surface Pro Four, but it's really decided by personal preference.

 

[smanmit2]

Great. Thank you. So would you so, you would get 6 hours of battery life on 50% of brightness?

 

[eastbayrae]

You won't get 6 hours out of SP4 and no all the serious bugs are not worked out. As for installing Win10 on an MBA, just don't, it will run horribly slow. Get a regular MacBook or MacBook Pro.

 

[smanmit2]

You won't get 6 hours out of SP4 and no all the serious bugs are not worked out. As for installing Win10 on an MBA, just don't, it will run horribly slow. Get a regular MacBook or MacBook Pro.

Are you sure Macbook? Because it is less powerful than air.

 

[explosive0]

Just recently went back to my MacBook Pro after giving the Surface line another try. Your use case may be different, but for me, I just couldn't deal with the issues anymore. I probably spent more time transferring data to replacement devices that had the exact same issue than I spent actually being productive on one.

 

[TechFreak1]

Which model of the Surface Pro 4 did you get?

As that highly depends how much battery life you will get out of your device.

Just recently went back to my MacBook Pro after giving the Surface line another try. Your use case may be different, but for me, I just couldn't deal with the issues anymore. I probably spent more time transferring data to replacement devices that had the exact same issue than I spent actually being productive on one.

What issue?

Please elaborate as your post is rather vague :winktongue::grincry:

 

[Axeelant]

The SP4 i5, 8GB model i'm using is working just fine with all the updates and everything we got by now. It can eat any macs for dinner, and is perfectly reliable. The only thing you can't do with it is lock it with a power button and unlock it immidiately back on. U have to wait 10 - 15s, that's it. Battery life i'm getting with light usage is around 6h, 50% brightness. Also, W10 is awesome, after redstone it will be a killer!

 

[v535]

The SP4 i5, 8GB model i'm using is working just fine with all the updates and everything we got by now. It can eat any macs for dinner, and is perfectly reliable. The only thing you can't do with it is lock it with a power button and unlock it immidiately back on. U have to wait 10 - 15s, that's it. Battery life i'm getting with light usage is around 6h, 50% brightness. Also, W10 is awesome, after redstone it will be a killer!

You could compile native .net images thereby reducing much of the background tasks and also uplift some battery life.
You need to compile x32 and x64 binaries separately.
For x32:

1. Open elevated prompt
2. Navigate to this path: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319
3. Type ngen eqi /nologo /silent

Similarly follow the same steps as followed but use a different path: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319
Also did you try removing old updates using Disk cleanup and Dism?
Hope this helps.

 

[explosive0]

Which model of the Surface Pro 4 did you get?

As that highly depends how much battery life you will get out of your device.



What issue?

Please elaborate as your post is rather vague :winktongue::grincry:

I think I made a post about this a while back, but here...I'll list a few

• Battery life is nowhere close to what is advertised in real-wordl usage. A few spreadsheets and browser tabs/windows, the fan comes on and out goes decent battery life
• Failing to wake up from sleep requiring a hard reboot. Even with the hibernate workaround (which I shouldn't have to put up with for the price of a premium device), my device fails to wakeup randomly, still requiring a hard reboot
• Windows Hello having a mind of its own and working when it wants to
• Type Cover disconnecting randomly - sometimes detaching and reattaching it fixes the issue, other times a restart is required
• Random BSODs.

Honestly, the list could go on. And this isn't a "you got a lemon" issue, I've tried multiple devices.

 

[Axeelant]

You could compile native .net images thereby reducing much of the background tasks and also uplift some battery life.
You need to compile x32 and x64 binaries separately.
For x32:

1. Open elevated prompt
2. Navigate to this path: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319
3. Type ngen eqi /nologo /silent

Similarly follow the same steps as followed but use a different path: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319
Also did you try removing old updates using Disk cleanup and Dism?
Hope this helps.

Can you just briefly explain what the first thing does? I have no clue...
And yes, i use Ccleaner often, cleaning lots of crap stored on my Surface. I also set the CPU max processor state to 95%, so now the fen rarely kicks in when performing easy tasks...

I think I made a post about this a while back, but here...I'll list a few

• Battery life is nowhere close to what is advertised in real-wordl usage. A few spreadsheets and browser tabs/windows, the fan comes on and out goes decent battery life
• Failing to wake up from sleep requiring a hard reboot. Even with the hibernate workaround (which I shouldn't have to put up with for the price of a premium device), my device fails to wakeup randomly, still requiring a hard reboot
• Windows Hello having a mind of its own and working when it wants to
• Type Cover disconnecting randomly - sometimes detaching and reattaching it fixes the issue, other times a restart is required
• Random BSODs.

Honestly, the list could go on. And this isn't a "you got a lemon" issue, I've tried multiple devices.

Just my opinion
1. Battery life is never the same as advertised by any company.
2. Wake works as expected, since latest power managment updates
3. Windows Hello works as it should, only on direct sunlight (especially outside), it rarely recognised me.
4. Type cover has never disconnected since I own my SP4 (from January).

 

[explosive0]

Can you just briefly explain what the first thing does? I have no clue...
And yes, i use Ccleaner often, cleaning lots of crap stored on my Surface. I also set the CPU max processor state to 95%, so now the fen rarely kicks in when performing easy tasks...



Just my opinion
1. Battery life is never the same as advertised by any company.
2. Wake works as expected, since latest power managment updates
3. Windows Hello works as it should, only on direct sunlight (especially outside), it rarely recognised me.
4. Type cover has never disconnected since I own my SP4 (from January).

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfpro4
My issues are not an isolated occurrence. I'm glad yours is working as intended.

 

[TechFreak1]

I think I made a post about this a while back, but here...I'll list a few

• Battery life is nowhere close to what is advertised in real-wordl usage. A few spreadsheets and browser tabs/windows, the fan comes on and out goes decent battery life
• Failing to wake up from sleep requiring a hard reboot. Even with the hibernate workaround (which I shouldn't have to put up with for the price of a premium device), my device fails to wakeup randomly, still requiring a hard reboot
• Windows Hello having a mind of its own and working when it wants to
• Type Cover disconnecting randomly - sometimes detaching and reattaching it fixes the issue, other times a restart is required
• Random BSODs.

Honestly, the list could go on. And this isn't a "you got a lemon" issue, I've tried multiple devices.

First of all, read the small print for all devices and you will see that there is a note saying something along the lines of your experience / battery life may vary. As a rule of thumb if a device has advertised 8 hrs battery life - deduct 3 to 2 hours and that will give you theoretically real world usage what the advertised battery life is based on. Anything intensive of course will decrease that; furthermore reducing the brightness of the screen will also help conserve battery life.

2) That is a skylake issue and not just isolated to the Surface pro 4

3) Understandable, it is still unfortunately in beta.. so bugs are still going to be apparent especially with the WaaS model with W10.

4) I see, sounds like driver issues

5) Check your GPU drivers, I have had no end of issues with intel igpu drivers (recent).

As these (bar the battery life) are driver / software related issues it will/may span multiple devices sadly.

 

[explosive0]

First of all, read the small print for all devices and you will see that there is a note saying something along the lines of your experience / battery life may vary. As a rule of thumb if a device has advertised 8 hrs battery life - deduct 3 to 2 hours and that will give you theoretically real world usage what the advertised battery life is based on. Anything intensive of course will decrease that; furthermore reducing the brightness of the screen will also help conserve battery life.

2) That is a skylake issue and not just isolated to the Surface pro 4

3) Understandable, it is still unfortunately in beta.. so bugs are still going to be apparent especially with the WaaS model with W10.

4) I see, sounds like driver issues

5) Check your GPU drivers, I have had no end of issues with intel igpu drivers (recent).

As these (bar the battery life) are driver / software related issues it will/may span multiple devices sadly.

I honestly don't go in expecting the battery life advertised. My rule of thumb is give or take 20% reduction. When MS advertises 8 hours and I get 4 from typical usage, that's abysmal. When I use my MacBook, for example, I get close to (if not more) than what was advertised.

Again, just stating my opinions and not trying to talk down MS; heck, I even work 100% on MS technology and want to see them succeed.

 

[Steve Adams]

Primary use: Excel, powerpoint, outlook, programming, and browsing.
Situation: Have been using macbook air - love it but few applications are not supported so decided to switch to windows. Bought surface pro 4 on release - was highly disappointed with battery life - never got more than 4 hours after all the settings suggested on forum. See my post - surface pro 4 terrible battery life do you agree?. I returned it and back to air.

Question: Considering all the recent updates - is surface pro 4 finally bug free and has 7 hours of battery life (considering my use)? In macbook air, I typically get 10 hours of battery life. Would appreciate if you can help with following:

1. Buy SP4 as now it is fully baked and has at least 6 hours of battery life
2. Hold on purchasing SP4
3. Install windows 10 on macbook air

Would appreciate if you can help and share your experience and suggestions.

Were you using edge as the browser? if so, switch to IE11. I found that my battery life jumped massive amounts on all my devices running on 10. My 2 notebooks, and 2 surfaces were using edge first.....it was horrible.

 

[TechFreak1]

I honestly don't go in expecting the battery life advertised. My rule of thumb is give or take 20% reduction. When MS advertises 8 hours and I get 4 from typical usage, that's abysmal. When I use my MacBook, for example, I get close to (if not more) than what was advertised.

Again, just stating my opinions and not trying to talk down MS; heck, I even work 100% on MS technology and want to see them succeed.

Well like I said it depends what model you are using and it what's running in the background.

For instance when my hp probook 4730s wasn't tethered to AC, I was able to stretch the battery to 10 hours by reducing the brightness, placing system files were seek times were lower on the hdd, under clocking and under volting. So yes, it depends what you are doing on the device - modern laptops and 2 in 1's don't suffer from battery fatigue the moment they leave the factory (unlike older cells).

 

[ttsoldier]

The SP4 i5, 8GB model i'm using is working just fine with all the updates and everything we got by now. It can eat any macs for dinner, and is perfectly reliable. The only thing you can't do with it is lock it with a power button and unlock it immidiately back on. U have to wait 10 - 15s, that's it. Battery life i'm getting with light usage is around 6h, 50% brightness. Also, W10 is awesome, after redstone it will be a killer!

What do you mean you can't lock and unlock it with power button immediately? I do it with mine...

Press power button. It locks. Press power button again. unlocks..Immediately

 

[explosive0]

What do you mean you can't lock and unlock it with power button immediately? I do it with mine...

Press power button. It locks. Press power button again. unlocks..Immediately

Press power button and it locks, but probably wouldn't wake up when you try to wake it up because of the known wake-up bug. The only workaround is to enable hibernation, which adds 10-15 seconds to the wake up process. No?

 

[ttsoldier]

Press power button and it locks, but probably wouldn't wake up when you try to wake it up because of the known wake-up bug. The only workaround is to enable hibernation, which adds 10-15 seconds to the wake up process. No?

I have hibernation enabled.

When I press the power button the screen simply locks. Just as it does when you press the power button on your Lumia.

When I press the power button again, the screen unlocks. Just as it does when you unlock your lumia.

There is no wake up process. Pressing the power button locks the device. Not puts it to sleep.

In power settings I have "When I press the power button" configured to " Turn off the display"

 

[explosive0]

I have hibernation enabled.

When I press the power button the screen simply locks. Just as it does when you press the power button on your Lumia.

When I press the power button again, the screen unlocks. Just as it does when you unlock your lumia.

There is no wake up process. Pressing the power button locks the device. Not puts it to sleep.

In power settings I have "When I press the power button" configured to " Turn off the display"

Lol. No it does not turn on instantly. Hibernation actually saves the state of your computer to memory before turning off, and once the power button is pressed, it has to load the system state from memory. So yeah, that's not instant on.